Water mill — horizontal-wheeled in Ferns Demesne

Situated at the bottom of a gentle NE-facing slope and c. 120m NE of the cathedral which is the probable site of St Maodhóg’s early church (WX015-003002-). Archaeological testing (E004633) during 2019 and 2020 by Kate Taylor in advance of the installation of a W-E waste water pipe from the R772 road (N11) to the NW-SE stream identified numerous archaeological features along the extent of the trench (L 120m). There were seven phases of activity, none closely dated as yet, but largely early medieval and medieval in date. Towards the E end of the trench a mill was recorded and is preserved in situ. This was on the E bank of a S-N watercourse that was recorded in a gradiometer survey (15R0042) conducted by The Discovery Programme (Dowling 2015). The stream (L c. 160m) originates just E of St Mary’s Abbey (WX015-003004-) and appears to be wider over most of its length than the fosses of the ecclesiastical enclosure and other man-made features recorded in the gradiometer survey. This is probably a natural stream and may have been deeply culverted where it meets the possible NW-SE road (WX015-003035-) as it isn’t visible here on the gradiometer survey. Features probably pre-dating the mill are a pit (diam. 1.71m; D 0.58m plus), two postholes, stakeholes, and a gully at the centre of the trench. Further W a layer of silt, a pit, and a gully are sealed beneath the up-cast of medieval ditches, but no artefacts were recovered at either location (Taylor and Hurley 2021, 14-7). Two pits and two ditches, both of which were re-cut, together with some gullies are probably early medieval in date because of the lack of pottery associated with them. One ditch (Wth 0.95m; D 0.32m) aligned NE-SW was cut by a second ditch (Wth 1.25m; D 0.23m) at its W edge, but E of these features was a larger N-S V-shaped ditch (Wth 2m; D 1.05m). This was also cut on its W edge by a smaller ditch (Wth 1.05m; D 0.48m), and several gullies were also related to this phase (ibid. 17-21). The fosse of the inner ecclesiastical enclosure (WX015-003021-) is also in the section (ibid. 21-1, 33-4). At the waterlogged E end of the water-pipe trench, and just E of the line of the stream, the remains of a wooden water mill were preserved. It consists of the wheel-pit inserted into a cut (dims 4.42m E-W; 2.16m plus N-S), and its tail-race. The wheel-pit itself (dims 2.1m E-W; 1.3m N-S) is formed by three large oak timbers and is too small to have accommodated a vertical wheel so, although no evidence of the wheel was present, it was probably laid horizontally. The S timber extends W, continuing under the E wall of the stone-walled mill that replaced the wooden one. The mill structures are preserved in situ and were not fully excavated. The tail race (Wth 3m; D 0.29-0.9m) starts at the wheel-pit and extends E towards a point where the surface stream steps E, and it was sampled, although it is largely outside the trench to the N. The original tail race is cut through clay and had two fills of silty or sandy clays. Three large pits (Wth 2.08; D 0.48m: Wth 2.72m; D 0.61m: Wth 0.72m plus; D 0.44m plus) were in the S section of the trench further E and are probably contemporary with the first mill (ibid. 24-7). The tail race was re-cut, and sherds of pottery, iron objects including a nail, fragments of two coins and of a conglomerate millstone as well as worked wood were recovered from it, although the tail race lies largely outside the trench to the N (ibid. 36-9). Just W of the timbers of the wooden wheel-pit is a clay floor (Wth 2.9m E-W; 1.5m plus N-S) bounded by what were clay-bonded stone walls to the W (Wth 0.4m; H 0.8m) where it forms the E edge of the upper fill of the stream and E (Wth 0.72m; H 0.35m). The floor has beam-slots inserted into it forming a rough ‘H’ pattern in plan like the surviving beams of the earlier mill, and two postholes are also set in this surface. Immediately W of the millhouse was the stream, visible in the section as a cut (Wth of top 3.7m; Wth of base 1.4m; max. D 1.9m) aligned NE-SW, with a stepped W side and a straighter E side where it is retained by the stone wall from the later millhouse. It retained water at the bottom and was filled with varying qualities of silt, from which some artefacts including sherds of pottery, leather shoes and a possible fragment of a millstone were recovered. (ibid. 35-6) See the attached: _1 plan of the mill from Taylor and Hurley 2021, Fig. 9 _1 S-facing section f the stream with the stone mill wall on right from Taylor and Hurely 2021, Fig. 49 Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 February 2021